Archive for the ‘Competitions’ Category

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Building for FIRST or Science Olympiad?

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

We’ve recently started seeing the flurry of activity that marks when teams building for the upcoming national robotics competitions start shopping. Since we stock a very large selection of robot parts, finding what you need can be a bit daunting at first. To assist builders, we’ve launched our FIRST Starter Page to help get people pointed in the right direction. Within it we’ve listed the most popular items we see flying off the shelves every competition season, laid out in an easy to navigate manner. If you or someone you know is looking for parts for their competition entry, point ‘em this way!

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Posted in Competitions, Front Page News, Hardware - Electronics, Hardware - Mechanical, New Kits / Products | No Comments »

Mech Warfare Featured in Issue 15 of Robot Magazine!

Friday, January 16th, 2009

The Mech Warfare competition, which was founded right here at the Trossen Robotics Community (TRC), continues to gain momentum as we count down the months until the debut at Robogames 2009 this summer. Our friends over at Robot Magazine had caught word of the competition, as well as the viral excitement of the builders involved, and asked me to write up an article outlining the competition, the rules, and the participants and their Mechs.

For those of you who may not have heard of Mech Warfare yet, it is a robotic competition in which participants construct remotely piloted walking robots armed with airsoft guns and other weapons to duke it out in an urban style arena. Think of it as small scale R/C MechWarrior.

If you’d like to check out the article, you can pick up the current issue of Robot Magazine in most major bookstores or order it online from our store. For more information on the Mech Warfare event, check out the Official Site and the Mech Warfare Forums. We hope to see you and your Mech at Robogames 2009!

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Posted in Competitions, Featured Projects, Humanoid Robots, Mech Warfare, News / Articles | 1 Comment »

Three New VEX Starter Bundles Now Available

Friday, December 12th, 2008

This time of year is very exciting for students and teachers as they ramp up for competitions in the new year. VEX Robotics has been a very popular choice in the Educational Robotics field and has recently expanded their product line!

The baseline kits have been upgraded to the Protobot Robot Kit, which is a versatile wheeled platform and make the perfect starting point for any competition. Around the Protobot three different starter bundles are offered, the Radio Controlled Starter Bundle, the Autonomous Control Starter Bundle, and the Dual Control Starter Bundle. These give students and teachers a headstart by providing all the essentials to get started building for their competitions no matter the type or control method. Trossen Robotics would like to wish all of those participating in this upcoming year’s competitions the best of luck!

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Posted in Competitions, Featured Robots, Front Page News, New Kits / Products, Product Spotlight | No Comments »

Want a free* trip to Japan?

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Oh yes, there is always that pesky asterisk. However in this case, what the asterisk implies isn’t too bad.

David Calkins, Robogames founder and co-host of the Revision3 eShow: Systm, is offering a free* all expenses paid trip to Japan. What’s the catch? Well first of all, you have to have a 3kg Sumobot. David’s message below explains the whole deal:

So, The all-Japan 3kg sumo tournament is Dec 21st in Tokyo.

Fujisoft gave me 2 seats to go, all expenses, but Simone is pregnant and due about then, so I’m giving away the tix.

Want ‘em?

You gotta win ‘em.

MAIL me your 3kg sumo (not 500g), so it arrives by the morning of Dec 5th.
Include pre-paid return for the package.  On Dec 6th, I’ll compete them all in a normal sumo bracket.  Don’t have a 3kg sumo?  You can build one in 3 weeks…

The top two robots each get one ticket to Japan.  You will need a passport and time off work to go.  This is going to be totally merit based.  It’s not random.
Best two robots go.

Email me directly for more details: dcalkins@robotics-society.org

-David E. Calkins

SFSU Robotics Engineering and Robotics Outreach President,  RoboGames / Robotics Society of America

How cool is that? Here’s some mini-sumo action!

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Posted in Competitions, Contests, Fun Stuff | No Comments »

Trossen Robotics at Robogames!

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

With Robogames 2009 coming up this summer, we wanted to remind everyone of what a great time we had at Robogames last year. If you’re looking to get into Robotics or simply want to drink beer and watch giant robots duke it out, Robogames is the place to be. Here’s a quick video we threw together talking with a few Roboticists on how they got started and why!

We hope to see you at this years Robogames 2009 in San Fransisco!

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Posted in Competitions, Fun Stuff, Interviews | No Comments »

Robot Fighting and Fun at iHobby 2008

Friday, October 24th, 2008

We had a blast at iHobby this year. Here are a few clips we threw together of some of the fun we had.

Starting off the video is a fight between Farrell Robotics Zog, and our own little Robobuilder. There is also some footage of the Chibotica area around the robotics section, and a peak at some of the robots on display.

Here’s a short video of Farrell Robotics’ Zog vs the Robophilo. This is what happens when you put a fully custom built, top of the line humanoid robot against a $400 budget humanoid! Hilarity ensues.

See you at iHobby next year!

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Posted in Competitions, Fun Stuff, Humanoid Robots | No Comments »

iHobby 2008 Pictures, Farrell Robotics Unveil New Robots

Monday, October 20th, 2008

We had a blast at iHobby 2008! We got to meet a lot of new people, old friends, and new robots!

We were super busy keeping up with visitors at our booth, but we tried to snap a few pictures before the show started each day. We created a gallery of some of the better pictures we took. Farrell Robotics was also there, showing off their amazing new robots Zyn and Kai, which are based on the EX-106, RX-28, and DX-117 servos. They are quite literally the most advanced competition humanoids in the US, completely custom built and a real marvel of engineering.

These bots are literally as big as toddlers, in fact they had Kai dressed the part. Seeing how quick and strong these robots are was truly a sight, I’m pretty sure they could at least take our software guy Alex (not me though, I know their weakspots!)

Here are a few pictures (click to enlarge) but be sure to check out our iHobby 2008 Gallery!

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Posted in Competitions, Displays / Lighting, Featured Robots, Fun Stuff, Humanoid Robots, News / Articles | No Comments »

The Crabfu Challenge Winners Announced!

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

The infamous Crabfu issued a challenge to our Community just over a month ago. In his words:

“The challenge:
To bring a bunch of hardware the illusion of life and character. This is NOT about AI or fancy software or hardware. It’s not to achieve real character or personality, but the ILLUSION of it. Autonomous robots can enter too, but this isn’t a contest of the smartest robot, but a smartest “looking” and “moving” robot could win. This is about the art of breathing some charm into a bunch of electronics. So the goal is simple, the most characterful robot wins.”
Well just over a month had passed, and after much deliberation and consulting with fellow animators, the winners were announced.


Third Place: Robot Piggie
Creator: Jagged




Second Place: Delfigelo
Creator: Pladoh




First Place: Darwin
Creator: jes1510




“Thanks everyone for participating, and congrats to the winners. Regardless of who won what, I hope that this little competition inspires robot builders to add some charm to the machine, and shows the importance of visual creativity & emotional impact!

-Crabfu”

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Posted in Competitions, Featured Projects, Hack / DIY Stuff, Misc | No Comments »

Matt Bauer joins the Mech Wars fray, debuts new Mech Combat Platform Software

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Matt Bauer, the man behind one of the top Robo-One class humanoid robots in the United States, Rook’s Pawn 3, sat in on the initial pitch and discussion of the Mech Wars event. He was intrigued, but when I asked him what he was planning he kept pretty quiet and simply said he’d release it when it was ready.

Well, Matt did not disappoint. He recently debuted his custom Mech Puppeteer Combat Platform, which is a very slick looking GUI built specifically to control Matt’s soon to be announced Robonova based robot for Mech Wars. Take a gander at the layout and you’ll see what I’m talking about:

Mech Puppeteer Combat Platform
Click to Enlarge.

The buttons light up, weapon systems have animated safety switch features, and a video feed with targeting reticle is built in. These controls are keyboard mappable and Matt is working to make this software as modular as possible and available for public release. Here’s a video showcasing some of the features:

And here’s a short video showing the built in safety features and weapon system of the software:

I personally can’t wait to see what Matt has up his sleeve as far as his actual Mech. If the quality of his software and Rook’s Pawn 3 is any indication, Mech Wars participants are going to be facing some fierce competition from him.

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Posted in Competitions, Featured Projects, Hack / DIY Stuff, Military, Misc, Software | No Comments »

American Maker in Chicago!

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Calling all Chicago area inventors! Come to the Museum of Science and Industry and show off your inventions! Compete for fame and fortune, conquer the legions of fellow tinkerers, and claim your right as King of the Geeks!

Okay just kidding, this is a friendly competition, but the winner does get a cash prize and publication in a future issue of MAKE. Info below:

American Maker Logo

On Saturday, September 20th at the Museum of Science and Industry, the editors of MAKE will be organizing a “show-and-tell” program called American Maker. The goal of American Maker is to showcase grassroots innovation from Chicago-area makers. We’re looking for makers who are working on cool projects and whose work has the potential to benefit others. We believe that makers are a leading force in grassroots innovation — where individuals decide to create something new.

American Maker is a friendly competition and the winner will be awarded a $500 cash prize plus publication in a future issue of MAKE.

If you’d like to participate and show what you make at this event, you can submit a project at:

http://www.makezine.com/american/

You are also welcome to come on Saturday, September 20th and join us in the audience. American Maker is part of Lab Fest, which kicks off Science Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry. American Maker will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on September 20th. Admission to the museum is free on that day.

We hope to see you there!

Cheers,
The MAKE Team
cs@readerservices.makezine.com
http://makezine.com/account

Posted in Announcements, Competitions, Hack / DIY Stuff, Misc, Project Ideas | No Comments »

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